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One of the 2 ridiculously rewarding things we did this trip was after the 1st day float, when we hopped off the stream early to go find and set-up camp. It was Labor Day weekend so we were pretty unsure whether or not there was a camp site anywhere in the state of Idaho. After passing a couple camps that looked like party central Ryan made one of his many executive decisions (it’s always good to have a decision maker and he has done right in the past) to push on up the mountain and see what is available away from the river. We ended up finding a great site as far as camping goes that was close enough to a stream that we could fish that evening before calling it a night. Well, we were all jacked up about fishing, since this was a fishing trip, that we set up camp and immediately hit the stream. Now by hit the stream I mean if you would have fallen you would have literally hit the stream. Since this 1/2 mile distance from camp to stream was straight down hill and by hill I mean mountain and by straight I mean a wide path of loose rock straight down the hill to the river. We debated for a few minutes if whether or not the walk back out was going to be worth it or not, but the only way we would ever know is to nut up and go for it. The walk down wasn’t all that bad, I think we all lost our footing at least twice, nothing was broken except for a good sweat. Where we ended up looked like one endless rapid, as far up as I could see and eventually as far up as I cared to walk, actually it got faster the farther up I walked. Like we saw from above it was a beautiful section of water and awful fishy looking. But it was way to fast to get out into any of the current breaks, but fishing the seams closer to the bank did turn out to be somewhat productive for all of us. I would guess we landed 20-30 fish between us all in the 2-3 hrs we fished, I know Ryan got into a good pocket way down stream and Chris and I eventually found a couple good runs, but this was a stream that was primed for a good float. Hence the wide path straight off the mountain I would assume. I couldn’t imagine roping a raft or anything off that mountain. The fishing must have been other-worldly at some point in time for that path to be there.

The only thing worse than the walk in was of course the walk out. I bet it took me 45 min to an hour to walk out. Chris having the build and stamina of a small mountain goat beat foot to the top rather quickly and I think he tried to start a rock slide down to Ryan and I who paced ourselves together just incase one of us decided to give up and let nature have its way with us back down at the bottom of the hill. I don’t think either of us would have put out a helping hand if Chris would have rolled by us. Regardless of it’s torturous walk we made it back to camp in one piece and we brought plenty of picture perfect trout to hand once again. Would I do it again?? I would think not but who knows, you know how that fishing sickness can get you to do things you body or mind would not normally attempt.